About nine months after being rushed to hospital with severe chest discomfort a friend has been diagnosed with a mitral valve issue and discharged for now - getting re-referred if things worsen.. One pamphlet mentions a minimally invasive procedure to repair the mitral valve called a "mitral valve clip" as opposed to open heart surgery.
I said I would ask the forum for him to see if anyone had any knowledge/experience/etc. of this procedure. He is retired and the primary carer for his elderly and frail mother.
Written by
MichaelJH
Heart Star
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Hello there - normally we would only use a mitral clip if someone wasn't fit enough for open heart surgery. Although it's a more invasive procedure, the outcomes are much better.
Hello, a keyhole mitral valve repair is not necessarily the same procedure as a mitral clip repair.
A mitral clip is inserted through a catheter which is fed through a vein into the heart and is normally used for people who are not suitable for open heart surgery.
A less invasive repair can also be done by port access where the main entry point to the heart is under the right breast. I had this procedure in 2007 and compared to the other patients who had had their chests opened I could move about much easier and I was in a lot less pain.
Unfortunately that repair has now failed and I am waiting for a date for an operation to fit a mechanical valve .
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